Word: wajda
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...significant credit as a historical film Danton brings forth the contradiction interest in the Revolution. Robespierre stresses Egalite, Danton prefers Liberie; Robespierre will use any means to meet his goals, Danton will practically reject the revolution if he can secure passes and prosperity for the common man. Happily, Wajda refuses to interpret Robespierre's section Glacial idealist or self serving demagogue, Wajda won't say. On the other hand, he does edit out some of Danton's flaws, barely mentioning his constant philandering, his willingness to accept bribes, and what may have been a just for power. Indeed, Danton...
...Wajda constructs the contest of the duel between these two remarkable men with admirable skill. He sticks closely to historical detail, even mentioning Robespierre's illness in the month prior to Danton's return to Paris and using Robespierre's actual words in the deruncistory speech he delivers before the Convention. Only rarely does his scene setting tend toward excess or degenerate into same dropping as in Robespierre's visit to the studio of Jacques Louis David, where the great artist is finishing his famous "Death of Marat...
Even more important than actual historical reproduction is Wajda's ability to capture the feel of the age the grime of street life and bread lines, the sense of urgency haunting politicos on all sides of the spectrum, and the pervasive paranoia of a society in lethal flux. Wajda brings forth all the weapons in this director's arsenal, from a droning soundtrack to claustrophobic camerawork, to brilliant contrast between dark night and the torches of the security police. He succeeds masterfully in conveying the dreadful anxiety of living in a totalitarian regime. For if the government of the Terror...
THERE CAN BE LITTLE QUESTION as to why Wajda, a polish director with Polish interests, chose a French historical subject, and made his movie as a co-production with a French studio. The obvious parallels between France in 1794 and Poland in 1983 allow Wajda to commitment on the Polish crisis while ostensibly dispassionately examining a 200 year old incident. Indeed, more puzzling given Wajda's reputation as a Solidarity apologist, is the Polish government's support of the production through Film Polski. Not surprisingly after seeing the final version the Polish authorities decided to postpone indefinitely the film...
...close fit between the story and Poland's current convulsions actually presents the film's greatest problem. One has the nagging sense that the image on the screen is Gdansk or Warsaw, retracted by Wajda's lens to look to Paris. And rather than heightening the film's urgency, this imparts the slightly bitter tests of propaganda, setting the viewer on the defensive. Wajda goes to far as to cast French actors at the Dantonist "indulgent" and poles as the hard line Jacobins such as Robespierre and St. Just, the film's real villain. Pszoniak even bears an unfortunate though...